22 



CHAPTER IIT. 



IF any pliilosopher should gird himself to the task of 

 tracing the vagaries of the TransTnigrating Ens, as 

 it has been termed, and following the spirit through its 

 various phases, he would have an amusing but a puzzling 

 time of it, even though he took Pythagoras for his guide. 

 And yet that doctrine of the Metempsychosis, founded 

 not improbably on the growth, dissolution, and regene- 

 ration of animal and vegetable natures, raises thoughts 

 not to be hastily cast away. It mingles with our reason- 

 ings, be they grave or gay; suggests itself to Hamlet 

 when he discourses of imperial Caesar, and to the wag 

 who, after decking the last resting-place of Quin with 

 thyme and pot-marjoram, breathes the pious aspiration, — 



And fat be the gander that feeds on his grave. 



Bodies die but to revive. The carcass, uncontaminated 

 by medical efforts to cheat the worm, soon swarms with 

 animal life in a different form ; and the decayed vegetable 

 revives in the mucor which bursts from its dead fibres, to 

 say nothing of the hosts of minute insects which live, 

 and move, and have their being upon its remains. And 

 this, be it remembered, is only the first stage patent to 

 all eyes. But who shall say that when the cycle is com- 

 pleted, the dead body may not live again as a perfect 

 animal or vegetable, — more perfect than when the sun 

 first shone upon it in its nascent state ? 



In truth, all sublunary nature is apparently so full, 

 that one may well understand the notion that the quan- 

 tity of matter is infinitesimally small, and the volume of 

 spirit enormously great. Jupiter, it is said, seeing this, 

 threw down a capacious handful of souls upon this petit 



